Thursday, October 8, 2015

(Chicago Tribune) - The former Chicago bishop of the Orthodox Church in America who was asked to retire amid allegations of sexual misconduct two years ago has sued church leaders, claiming they breached that retirement contract.

The lawsuit against Metropolitan Tikhon, primate of the Orthodox Church in America, and Detroit Archbishop Nathaniel, leader of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate, was filed in Cook County Circuit Court last month. Both defendants were served during the national Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in Chicago.

Bishop Matthias alleges that church leaders violated the terms of his retirement and a recent employment agreement when they terminated a parish assignment in response to complaints from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

"This is a case about broken promises and the repeated failure to honor one's legal obligations," the suit says. "The legal questions involved are not complex. Indeed, they require only a straightforward application of civil law."

Officials with the Orthodox Church in America declined to comment, citing a church policy "to not comment on any active or potential legal activities."

Bishop Matthias' assignment to a parish in Pennsylvania angered victims' advocates who said allowing the ousted bishop to return to any form of active ministry violated the church's zero-tolerance policy.

Bishop Matthias, born David Lawrence Moriak, stepped down from his post as head of the Midwest diocese in April 2013 after the church determined that remarks to a female parishioner in Ohio qualified as sexual misconduct.

"I do repent of using poor judgment, of using inappropriate words that I thought were being received as humorous," Matthias said at the time of his ouster. "It was never my intention to cause a complaint of any harm or discomfort."

Terms of the retirement package included permission for Bishop Matthias to serve in any parish, as long as he had the blessing of the local bishop. That agreement included the parish in Columbus, Ohio, where his son serves as a priest. Though the Orthodox Church allows its priests to marry and have children, only monastic priests can become bishops.

Bishop Matthias never remarried after the death of his wife in 1997 and entered monastic life in 2003. He became a bishop when he came to Chicago in 2010.

After agreeing to retire in 2013, Bishop Matthias moved to West Virginia, where he purchased a home and secured a retail job to make ends meet. According to the suit, Archbishop Nathaniel, the most senior bishop in the denomination and leader of the Romanian Episcopate, contacted him in November 2014 to fill a parish post temporarily in Hermitage, Pa.

Because of the temporary nature of the job and the required move, Bishop Matthias initially declined the request, the suit said. Archbishop Nathaniel returned six months later to offer a guaranteed one-year appointment approved by Metropolitan Tikhon and other bishops, according to the suit, leading Bishop Matthias to quit his retail job, lease his house and move to Hermitage.

According to the suit, after victims' advocates aired their concerns in July, Metropolitan Tikhon told Bishop Matthias he could continue to serve with his blessing, but any references to his position had to be removed from the parish website. Bishop Matthias declined, the suit said.

Melanie Sakoda, a member of SNAP, said she's not surprised by the allegations in the complaint that the church tried to keep the reassignment under the radar.

"The OCA has been dragged kicking and screaming into making changes," she said. "Bishop Matthias is a hard case for them because there was no touching involved."

In August, according to the suit, Metropolitan Tikhon proposed removing Bishop Matthias from the Pennsylvania parish to participate in a three-month clergy supervisory plan in residence at a monastery with a $7,000 stipend.

He also acknowledged in that email that Bishop Matthias had "acted in good faith in all of this" and admitted that he and the bishops "failed in fulfilling" their "responsibility," the suit said.

Bishop Matthias seeks damages, including lost wages and expenses incurred during the move from West Virginia to Pennsylvania. The suit also claims Bishop Matthias has suffered emotional distress.

"After losing his beloved wife, the church was his entire life," the suit said. "And now that, too, was being taken away from him."

The Orthodox Church in America, one of several branches of Orthodox Christianity in the U.S., claims about 100,000 adult members nationwide and 5,000 in the Midwest.

I really don't know what to say. The really troubling thing for me is the fact that he's bringing a court into a Church matter.

How can any Orthodox member can do that? It's baffling to me.

As for them using him in a parish. I don't know what to say, honestly. We can sit here and and be armchair canon lawyers all we want, but that's the decision of the bishop's, I would imagine. He wasn't defrocked or anything like that. They'll have to answer to God for this, not me. Now, had he actually committed a crime or actually engaged in something beyond texting, it would be different. And, no, I'm not saying his texts were proper, but the fact of the case remains.

"What kind of message is this sending to OCA woman that a former bishop who does not know how to set boundaries with women is still allowed to serve? What he did is wrong."

My unsolicited and unimportant 2 cents:

1) I am a married man. If I had engaged in the text conversation that this man did with another woman, and my wife found it, there'd be major drama at Casa Gurrea and possibly me sleeping on a couch for a while. It would be worse if I was found out then if I voluntarily showed her and admitted my wrongdoing. My acting dumb and saying that it was misinterpreted and that my intentions were pure would not matter. Presumably, if you're not on the low functioning end of the autistic spectrum and you have dated/had sex with/spoken to a woman at some point in your life, you know what flirtation looks like.

2) Some people are held to a higher standard. There are things I can't do and say as a psychologist because I'm held to a professional ethical standard. I can be disciplined by the board for saying and doing certain things that a layperson can do or say. I can say it is unfair, but it is my trade off for getting to work in a clean office environment and having people call me "doctor." I can say it is unfair, but then again I could have been a bartender and gotten to say or do whatever I want.

Likewise, if people are going to kiss your hand, tell you to live forever, and put down a special rug wherever you stand, you are going to be held to a certain standard where you can't do or say everything you otherwise would. What is simply naughty to a layman is a scandal to a bishop, full stop, get over it. That's not unfair... It is common sense.

3) All of us (plain old non monastic, non clergy public) usually go through a lot of craps on a given week. Arguments with spouse, kids being little terrorists, jerk boss chewing us out I front of others, etc. Most of us have been fired from a job at least once, and while it sucks, we usually just have a few stout glasses of liquor, grumble a little, go to bed, and maybe stay pissed off for a week or two.

Now someone explain to me why the most thin-skinned, dramatic, failing to take responsibility, "I'm-being-made-a-martyr" responses to life's aforementioned difficulties that I've *ever* seen have all been clergy, specifically celibate clergy? I'm not just thinking about this case.

"The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide."